MYTH:

The Catholic church and some of its followers believe in the myth that some saints and virgins have cried blood. They make statues of them with blood tears rolling down the faces made of ceramic or plaster.

Many catholics report sightings of weeping madonnas, from Ireland to Croatia, but the only one recognised by the Church is a statue of the Virgin Mary in the town of Siracusa in Sicily. It began weeping in 1953, so they say.

FACT:

There is actually a symptom known as haemolacria, which is a rare condition that causes a person to producetears that are partially composed of blood. The condition hasgarnered significant attention in the medical community andmedia recently.

Haemolacria is a symptom of multiple diseases involvingthe conjunctiva and lacrimal system.

These entities can rangefrom vascular malformations and tumors to infectious or inflammatoryconditions and has even been reported in the literature as apresenting finding in scleral buckle infection.